Friday, May 29, 2009

an american family

My daughter got me interested in watching John and Kate Plus Eight this time last year when I lived with her for a while. Her husband Adam often made me laugh with his satirical remarks. At the time, their new baby, Lila was in and out of the hospital for epilepsy. Lila’s older sister, Ryan, introduced me to the new version of Mickey Mouse Club which is really cool.

TLC channel had John and Kate plus Eight (JK+8 from now on because I’m tired of typing the long title, OK?) on it seemed 24 x 7. So any time Jens had a few moments she’d pop on the show. I must admit, I got into it and even memorized the names of their kids. But something bugged me after a while. Kate seemed like a bit of a tyrant. John seemed a wimp who didn’t really dig his family’s show.

We would all sit and say, “…this ain’t gonna last”. I haven’t watched the show in months but the current tabloid stories of love, lust, infidelity, third grade teacher, bodyguard seems believable given all the lights camera and action, plus their big book deal. I almost bought Jens a copy for her birthday recently but she has enough to read with her Masters program textbook doorstops.

All this reminds me of the PBS series aired in ’73 called "An American Family"…the Loud Family…there may have been reality TV shows before this one but the Loud’s story was quite different and very real, seemingly unfolding live before the camera. Unlike the Louds, JK+8 will probably win an Emmy...in '73 there was not an Emmy category for "An American Family" - like reality.

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